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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22566937">Work-Life Balance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/laxit21/pseuds/laxit21'>laxit21</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Arrow (TV 2012)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Office, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Goodbye Olicity gift exchange, Mutual Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:42:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,275</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22566937</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/laxit21/pseuds/laxit21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Olicity as co-workers with some mutual pining thrown in.</p><p>(A gift for @v4l13)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>137</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Work-Life Balance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=v4l13">v4l13</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Oliver listened intently and nodded along as his coworker Felicity Smoak explained the new updates to the computer systems to him. He didn’t understand half of what she said, but pretended like he did. It was a computer, how difficult could using it be? All he did was data entry anyway, so as long as Excel still worked, it didn’t matter what new programs and security measures they’d added.</p><p>He didn’t tell Felicity this, of course, because if he told her that he didn’t need to know this stuff, she’d leave to go talk to the other employees. He didn’t want her to leave his cubicle just yet. So, he listened intently as she babbled about the new programs and what they could do. He’d take any excuse to spend more time around Felicity. She was nice, and so incredibly smart, but she never made him feel stupid. She was also very, very pretty and he sometimes had a hard time focusing on what she was saying when they talked. She was amazing, and there was no way she’d ever have feelings for someone like him.</p><p>Oliver was so preoccupied thinking about how little of a shot he had with Felicity that he almost missed her wrapping up her speech. “That’s the spiel I’m giving for now, while everyone adjusts. If you need to know more about the functionality, send an email down to IT and we’ll get someone working on it.” She said. “Any questions?”</p><p>“I- no, not really.” He said. “You- your explanation told me everything I think I’m gonna need to know. Thank you Felicity.”</p><p>“No problem.” She said, crossing his name off of her list of people to talk to. “Okay, next is…frack!”</p><p>“What’s wrong?” He asked, suddenly worried. Was someone bothering or harassing Felicity? Why hadn’t she said anything before?</p><p>“Roy’s next on my list.” She said. “He’s nice but he’s not exactly tech savvy. Explaining how things work to him takes forever. Don’t tell him that I said that.”</p><p>He relaxed, happy that Felicity’s problem wasn’t very serious, and chuckled. “Your secret’s safe with me.”</p><p>“Well, have a good one.” She told him before walking off.</p><p>“Thanks, you too.” He said. He thought to ask her if she had lunch plans, but didn’t get the words out until after she was out of earshot.</p><p> </p><p>Oliver first met Felicity on his second day at the company. He’d accidentally knocked over the latte he’d been drinking onto his keyboard. He called IT immediately after that happened, and Felicity was the technician they sent to look at it. After getting a stern lecture from her, he promised not to have coffee that close to his computer again.</p><p>The incident was the first of a few involving Oliver messing up something on his computer and Felicity coming to fix it. He used her visits to get to know her better and they became friends.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you ever gonna ask her out?” Tommy asked, peering over the top of the divider that separated his and Oliver’s desks and snapping him out of his daydream. “Everyone knows you’ve got a thing for her.”</p><p>“There’s no way she’d be interested in someone like me.” He responded. “She’s a genius and I just play with spreadsheets all day because my dad thinks it’ll make me somehow want to take over the business.”</p><p>“Look, I’m just saying. You like her, she likes you, make a move before you miss your chance. Worst she can do is say no.”</p><p>“She can say no, and then run straight to HR and file a complaint. She’s my friend, I don’t wanna ruin it.”</p><p>“So, don’t be creepy about it.”</p><p> </p><p>Felicity finished explaining the new software to everyone on the second floor before making her way back down to the IT department. A few other techs looked up at her before going back to work. Felicity went over to her desk and sat down.</p><p>“Explaining everything went well, I take it?” Lena Luthor, the only other woman who worked in IT, asked.</p><p>“I made the mistake of saving Roy for last, but I think he understood what I was trying to tell him.” She answered. Roy was part of the new business department and he was a nice guy, but as Felicity had mentioned, he wasn’t very good with technology.</p><p>“And what about Lover Boy?”</p><p>“Who- don’t call him that.” She said. “We’re just friends.”</p><p>“But you wanna be more.”</p><p>“Oliver Queen would never be interested in someone like me. Besides, his dad is our boss. There’s probably rules against that.”</p><p>“No, there aren’t. But if you wanna stay in denial, fine.” Lena said. “Just tell me when you’re gonna make a move so that I can bet correctly.”</p><p>“People here bet on other people’s relationships?” Felicity asked incredulously.</p><p>“It helps pass the time.” She said. She didn’t mention that the only betting pool was on when Oliver and Felicity would finally get together.</p><p>Before she could say anything else, a help ticket came in from Robert Queen himself. He’d somehow deleted his entire email program. Felicity and Cisco, another IT tech, went to Robert’s office to try and fix the issue.</p><p> </p><p>The next day after lunch, Oliver went down to the IT department to see Felicity. She was sitting at her desk, typing quickly and he assumed she was busy. He turned to leave but she spotted him. “Oliver, hey. What brings you down here?”</p><p>“I was looking for you, actually.” He said. “I was wondering if…”</p><p>“Yeah?” She perked up. Was what she thought was going to happen about to happen?</p><p>“A bunch of us are gonna grab drinks after work if you wanna come.” He said. internally, he facepalmed. He hadn’t come down here to tell her this. He was going to ask if she’d have dinner with him, but standing in front of her, he lost his nerve. “I-uh, I wasn’t sure if anyone had mentioned it.”</p><p>The blonde deflated slightly and her smile became a little less genuine. “Yeah, I’ll come. Is this a special occasion or-?”</p><p>“Not that I know of.” He shrugged. “We were gonna head to Callahan’s.”</p><p>“I’ll meet you there.” She promised. He nodded and left, saying he didn’t want to keep her from her work any longer. “Get your head out of the clouds, Smoak. No way he’s interested in someone like you.”</p><p> </p><p>Tommy was waiting upstairs for Oliver to return. He knew his best friend had gone down to ask Felicity out and wanted to be the first person to know how it went. Oliver stepped out of the elevator and walked over to his desk. His shoulders were slightly hunched over. This wasn’t good.</p><p>“Walk it off, buddy.” Tommy said, trying to encourage his friend. “What did she say?”</p><p>“I didn’t ask.” He admitted. Tommy sighed, and he wasn’t the only person who seemed disappointed based on the sound of others sighing behind them. “I just- I got down there, and I was talking to her and I just- I said a bunch of us were getting drinks after work. Any chance you can organize a happy hour in the next few hours?”</p><p>“Have you met me?” Tommy asked rhetorically. “Callahan’s, I take it?” His friend nodded, so he started typing out an email to a few of their work friends. “And hey, maybe at happy hour, you can make your move.”</p><p>“Yeah, maybe.” Oliver said, not truly believing it. He went back to work and didn’t notice that his sister, who was interning at the company for the summer, walked past his desk and into Robert’s office.</p><p>“He didn’t do it.” Thea said, closing the door to her father’s office behind her.</p><p>“He didn’t do what?” Robert asked, not really listening.</p><p>“Oliver, he didn’t ask out Felicity.”</p><p>While Oliver’s family agreed not to meddle in his relationships, they were getting a little tired of the “will they, won’t they” act between him and Felicity. He mentioned her a lot, and it was clear that he had feelings beyond friendship for her. It was also very clear that Felicity had feelings for Oliver. The only people who didn’t seem to see it was Oliver and Felicity.</p><p>“Thea, we can’t force your brother to do something before he’s ready. The situation with Isabel-.”</p><p>“It messed him up, I know, but you can’t- I want him to be happy. Don’t you?”</p><p>“Of course, I do. Why else do you think that, whenever Oliver breaks something, I request that she fix it? it’s because she’s the best person down in IT, but also because it gives them an excuse to talk.” He said.  Robert was getting just as frustrated with the back-and-forth between his son and Felicity as everyone else. He just knew that if he tried to rush Oliver, it would have an adverse effect.</p><p> </p><p>Felicity, Oliver and about seven others went out for drinks after work. Of the people who came, only one Roy, didn’t know about Tommy’s plan to give Oliver and Felicity a moment alone so that they could talk, and hopefully, Oliver would ask her out. Drinks were ordered and people started talking. They split into groups and started chatting. Roy was about to ask Felicity a question, to try and get to know her better, when Sara grabbed his arm.</p><p>“C’mon. Let’s see if there’s finally someone who can beat me at darts.” She said.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You and me, dart competition.” She said, pulling him in that direction.</p><p>“So, how is Thea liking her internship?” Felicity asked Oliver after the rest of the group split up. Asking Oliver about Thea was a good way to get him talking and Felicity didn’t want to start babbling and ruin the conversation.</p><p>“She likes it so far. I’m starting to think that maybe Dad should start grooming her to take over and not me.” He said.</p><p>“Hey, the finance department is important. Without you guys, we can’t get paid.”</p><p>“All I really do is put things into Excel and write my dad a report saying what the numbers indicate.” He said dejectedly. His job was so easy a monkey could probably do it, and do it better than him.</p><p>“And that’s important to keeping the business going.” She said. “You shouldn’t be so down on yourself. You’re doing great.”</p><p>The conversation turned from work to Oliver asking Felicity if she’d read the book he recommended a few weeks ago when they bumped into each other at the bookstore. She had started it, but wasn’t done reading it yet. From there, they talked for a little while before people started to leave because it was getting late. Felicity saw the time and said she should leave as well. Oliver offered to walk her to her car and was about to ask her to dinner when Tommy called out to him. He’d left his phone inside. Felicity waved goodbye and got into her car while he was dealing with Tommy.</p><p>Laurel hit her boyfriend in the chest. “What was that for?”</p><p>“You ruined his moment.” She said. “What if he was about to ask her to dinner and then you interrupted?”</p><p>“That’s exactly what happened.” Oliver said. “It’s fine. She was gonna say no anyway.”</p><p>“No, she wasn’t.”</p><p> </p><p>Over the next week, Oliver talked to Felicity more at work. They ate lunch together a few times. They had already been friends, but got closer over the following few days. As he got to know Felicity better, he became less and less nervous about asking her out. He started to believe that if he asked, she’d say “yes” to going on a date with him.</p><p>Then, his father hired a new IT technician. Robert had asked everyone to gather on the second floor so that he could introduce the new hire to everyone at the same time. The man, Cooper Seldon, seemed unremarkable to him at first. As everyone was dispersing after the announcement, Oliver noticed that Felicity didn’t seem happy.</p><p>“What’s wrong?”</p><p>“Cooper and I have…. a history.” She said.</p><p>“You go to the same school or something?” Tommy asked.</p><p>“Or something.” She said. They’d dated and when they broke up, she never expected to see him again. She didn’t want to see him again. She made an excuse to go back down to her desk and started hatching a plan to avoid being anywhere near Cooper as long as she could help it.</p><p>Down in IT, Cooper kept trying to get Felicity alone, and she managed to avoid that for several days. Their break-up had been ugly and she had nothing left to say to him. Having to avoid him, though, stressed her out a lot, and others, including Lena and Oliver could tell.</p><p>When Oliver saw Cooper walk past his desk one day, he squeezed the pencil in his hand so hard that it snapped. He couldn’t stand Cooper, but he couldn’t explain why. It was probably because everything with Felicity has changed after he got hired.</p><p>“I don’t like that guy. Something’s not right about him.”</p><p>“Have you told your dad?” Tommy asked. “If he’s up to something-?”</p><p>“I can’t do anything about it. I can’t ask him to fire someone just because I don’t like him.” Oliver said before getting back to work.</p><p>Felicity’s plan to avoid Cooper worked for about two weeks, until the VP of Sales had a problem with his computer. He asked for Felicity personally, and since Cisco was out sick, Cooper went with her to take a look at the system. After looking at the computer itself, she realized there was a problem with one of the wires.</p><p>“Cooper, can you reach down and reconnect them?” She asked him. She didn’t want to bend down under the desk when she was wearing a dress, which she currently was. Especially in front of her ex-boyfriend.</p><p>“I think you should do it. I don’t know what’s supposed to connect with what.” He said. “I don’t wanna mess anything up.” She would’ve believed him, if he managed to keep the smirk off of his face.</p><p>Not wanting to cause a scene, Felicity moved under the desk to reconnect the wires. It only took a second, but when she stood back up, Cooper’s smirk was even wider. The VP of Sales seemed completely oblivious and thanked them as they headed out.</p><p>“I hope you were paying attention because next time, you’re fixing the wires.” She said.</p><p>“Lighten up. it’s not a big deal.” He told her.</p><p>“Playing the “I’m new” card to get me to bend over so you can stare at my ass is a big deal.” She shot back. “And that’s never gonna happen again.”</p><p>“But that view was so enjoyable.” As he talked, Cooper’s hand moved closer to Felicity’s backside. He was about to squeeze it when his arm was ripped away. Unfortunately for him, as they were walking towards the elevator, Oliver was coming out of his dad’s office.</p><p>“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Oliver demanded to know.</p><p>“Relax. Felicity and I go way back.” Cooper said.</p><p>“Doesn’t mean you can grope her.” He said. He looked over at Felicity who looked like she was about to cry. “Felicity, are you-?”</p><p>“She’s fine. You gonna let go of my arm now?” Cooper asked.</p><p>“Is there a problem?” Robert asked, stepping out of his office.</p><p>“No, sir, there’s-.”</p><p>“He almost attacked Felicity.” Oliver said. “I saw him-.”</p><p>“Ms. Smoak?” Robert asked.</p><p>Felicity sniffled. “Can I- I’d like to talk with you and Cecile, if that’s okay. Alone.” She said. Cecile Horton was the head of HR at the company. Robert nodded and walked with Felicity to HR.</p><p>She told them about her past relationship with Cooper and what had happened earlier that day. As soon as she was done, Robert borrowed Cecile’s phone to call security and have Cooper removed from the building. He was fired and Robert vowed that he’d tell every one of his colleagues about his actions so that he wouldn’t be able to get a job with one of them.</p><p>Robert then turned to Felicity. “If you’d like to go home and take a few personal days, you can.”</p><p>“Thank you, Robert.” She said with a small smile. “I- I’m gonna go see Oliver before I leave.” She left Cecile’s office and walked to Oliver’s desk. “Hey.”</p><p>“Hey. Are you okay?” He asked. He had no idea what he was supposed to say or do here.</p><p>“No, but I think I will be.” She said. “I just wanted to- thank you. I can’t- I can’t believe he-.” She was trying very hard not to cry. She was better than that, but it was still so embarrassing and demeaning and she couldn’t make herself calm down.</p><p>“Hey, hey. Is it okay if I hug you?” Oliver asked. “You look like you could use one.” She nodded and found herself engulfed in his arms. “I’m so sorry that this happened.”</p><p>“No, I- I shouldn’t have-. I-.”</p><p>“No, this is not your fault.” He said firmly. “It’s all on him. You didn’t do anything wrong.”</p><p>Felicity sniffled a few times before she pulled away. “Well, now that I’ve ruined your shirt with my mascara, I’m gonna go home.”</p><p>“Okay. Text me if you need anything.”</p><p>It took a few weeks after the incident for Felicity to feel normal at work again. Thankfully, not many people saw what happened, so she didn’t feel as exposed when she came back into the office, but Robert, Oliver and Cecile stopped by a few times to check on her and make sure she was okay.</p><p>A month after the incident, when Felicity was back to her smiling, happy self, Oliver took a trip down to IT again. He had wanted to ask her to dinner the day that Cooper was fired, but then the incident happened. He didn’t want to ask her so soon afterwards and make her feel uncomfortable.  Instead of nervously standing there, he knocked on the door and called out her name.</p><p>“Hey, so I was wondering if- will you go to dinner with me?” He asked.</p><p>“Yeah, I’d love to go on a date with you.” She said with a smile. “Wait, this is a date, right? I didn’t misread-.”</p><p>“It’s a date. I wanna date you.” He assured her. “Is Friday good?”</p><p>“It’s perfect.” She said.</p><p>Oliver went back upstairs and as soon as he exited the elevator, Tommy called out. “Okay, who had the 17<sup>th</sup> in the pool?”</p><p>“That would be me.” Thea said with a smirk. “Pay up everyone.”</p><p>Oliver and Felicity’s first date went well. As did their second one and every date after that. The “when will Oliver ask Felicity out” pool was replaced by a proposal pool, which Lena ended up winning. The proposal pool was replaced by a baby pool, which no one won because Robert told them they needed to stop gambling about their coworker’s lives. The day he ended it was the day after Felicity told him that they were expecting.</p><p>Robert retired after Oliver and Felicity’s son Lucas turned 1 and Oliver took over the family business. The night of Robert’s retirement party, Oliver turned to his wife. “Can I make a confession?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“You know how when I first started, I had a lot of computer issues? Well, I might’ve messed a few things up on purpose so that I had an excuse to call IT.”</p><p>“I know.” She said with a smirk. “I never said anything because I liked having an excuse to talk to you.”</p>
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